Pork is so tasty here in Malaysia compared to the US. I don’t know what it is but there is just more flavor to the pork meat here. It is unabashedly porky and isn’t dry like what I have found in the US, where I always have to brine the pork for it to taste like anything at all. Maybe it is also because the pork we get here at the market is really fresh and mostly locally raised. Whatever the reason, it’s just delicious.
The interesting thing about buying pork in Malaysia is that if you go to the wet market, you will find all the pork vendors in a separate part of the market away from the rest of the other meat vendors. Pork is non-halal for Muslims so whenever you want to buy pork, you need to buy it from a special section. The same happens if you go to a grocery store—they have a special section for all the non-halal items including some imported desserts and foods that may contain lard, gelatin and other pork parts.
The other day, I was at the grocery store in the non-halal section and found some pork belly on sale at a 25% discount. Though it was a thin slice, it had beautiful layers of meat and fat and was just calling my name. I decided that I had to buy it and figure out something to cook later on. Continue reading Braised Pork Belly with Tomatoes in Soy Sauce→
Easter is now behind us and we were left with lots of boiled eggs to deal with. This is what happens when you have kids and neighbor’s with kids and we end up coloring a lot of boiled eggs and then in order not to waste them, we have to find ways to eat them all up without resorting to devilled eggs or egg salad sandwiches.
Too Many Easter Eggs
This past Monday, I came up with two ideas—Oden and Thai Son-in-law Eggs. I’ll post about the latter in a future post but for today, let me talk about Oden. Oden is one of those Japanese dishes that I learned while studying in Hawaii (I tell you, that international dorm has been more successful in giving me numerous culinary experiences than actual studying experiences!).
We use a lot of green onions (also called negi, scallions or Spring onions) in our cooking. A lot of times, we’ll cut off the green tops and leave the white stalks in a cup of water by the kitchen windowsill until the roots get longer and the green leaves start growing. Then, we’ll plant the green onions in a pot of soil or in one of our garden beds.
By Springtime, we’ll have a forest of green onions to use!
They’re so easy to grow and care for. Just water the green onions every so often, harvest the outer leaves, and try to keep the snails away. You won’t have to buy green onions for months!
All my life growing up, my mom would make corned beef for us out of a can. Corned beef was like Spam, except it was beef instead of pork. To me, corned beef was something you’d fry up with some egg (like an omelet) and then sandwich between two slices of buttered bread with a squirt of ketchup. It was delicious. That was the only corned beef I knew. I never knew any other kind existed.
The first time I had real corned beef was in Hawaii, when I was with my dear friend, June. She had invited me to her house for some corned beef and cabbage. I was happy to have it, and was expecting what my mom had made me all my growing up years. Continue reading Corned Beef, Carrots and Colcannon Recipe→
